Some medications require relatively strict adherence to the timing of their taking. Drug overdosing and under dosing has become a major issue and concern in the medical and pharmaceutical industry. While there are several containers that are used as aids in dosing medicines or drugs, they often require special packaging or containers that may be relatively complicated and are not applicable to many different kinds of containers.
One such container and cap intended to aid dosing is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,011,032 entitled “Patient Dosage Regimen Compliance Bottle Cap” and issuing to Rollman on Apr. 30, 1991. Therein disclosed is a dispenser closure that aids in the dispensing of a medicine. The cap includes a ring that has a slide attached thereto which can be moved by the patient circumferentially on the ring to stop at indicia on the top of the ring which reminds the patient which dose was last taken or which dose is yet to be taken.
Another indicator cap is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,638,970 entitled “Child-Resistant Indicator Cap” issuing to Garby et al on Jun. 17, 1997. Therein disclosed is a closure for a container including an indicator mechanism that records the removal of the closure from the container and also incorporates a child-resistant mechanism. This mechanism is relatively complex and yet does not remind a patient of the need for taking a dose of medicine but only the number of doses taken.
While these different inventions have aided in the dispensing of medicines, they have been applied to a relatively specific purpose and type of container. Therefore there is the need for a relatively simple device that can be applied to different types and shapes of containers for medicines that will remind a patient of when the last dose was taken or when the next dose must be taken.